For me STEM activities are fun, but what are the best ways to persuade school students this is true?
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Showing them examples of what they can do with it. I just created new brochures and flyers for my program and had them sent to all of the high school counselors in the area. I also have 3d printed parts, and a digital photo from displaying projects in my lab window.
The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) has a website called eGFI that provides online resources for promoting STEM education to students from kindergarten to grade 12. This website is for both teachers and students. Visit http://www.egfi-k12.org/
Thank you for the useful replies. In the UK we have a STEM Ambassador scheme (http://www.stemnet.org.uk/) which is a scheme where STEM professional can get involved with schools and schools can find what people local to their area can offer.
Another UK-based site is from the unfortunately now close HE STEM project (http://www.hestem-sw.org.uk/) this has some great resources and case studies.
Add Art and Design! STEM to STEAM. For initial foray into this emerging work check out RISD webiste: http://stemtosteam.org/
There is also interesting work coming out of Stanford and the FabLab: http://tltl.stanford.edu/projects/fablabschool and Univ Colorado, Boulder: http://www.colorado.edu/istem/ and Leah Buechley at MIT http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/
Personally, I don't worry about making it fun, depending on how you define fun. I have spent a lot of time making it (science) interesting/thoughtful/creative/argumentative/valuable/'normal'/'real life' eg mechanics/useful etc. In other words, I try to design curriculum that inspires new ideas that need following up by the students. If they have ideas they want to followup, then they are hooked, but I don't aim for fun, though I can be funny. Pleasure might be a better word to use.
A couple of weeks ago I switched from the Faculty of Science (Computer Science and IT) to Education, to be more precise to the Dep. of Educational Technology. Here I came across STEM, which I haven't had on my agenda. I think, the scope of computer education leads to the adoption of STEM in a quite natural way. We have to consider maths (discrete mathematics at least), technology, engineering (concerning hardware, even software engineering), and science (at least as a broad application area). My following question focuses on more mature learners.
I haven't been involved in practical STEM education yet; so, I would like to understand to what extent computer literacy among your students could help create a positive learning environment (maybe fun).
http://www.english.nu.ac.th/stem-education-assisted-by-university-of-minnesota/
Each students conception of what is fun is different and to satisfy everyone is a long shot but we must keep trying.
One approach that I have is that I try to encourage my students with examples from science fiction that have turned into reality and challenge them to think how to convert science fiction into scientific fact. If we do not involve the creative process into the learning equation then we are just teaching the mechanics of the field.
Find FASCINATING and INTRIGUING experiments to get them hooked !
I am now working on a circuit that consists only of a capacitor, inductor, an LED, and a battery that makes the LEDs flash at a very low speed. Sounds simple, but, it is very challenging to reduce the frequency to sub-Hz levels. This will fascinate the students even at high school level, and, even, more importantly, in countries with much less resources. It can be built out of scrap parts, and cost $0, but, yet, be incredibly instructive and intriguing. Once a student sees that, (s)he is hooked on : 1) circuits, 2) magnetism, 3) physics, 4) mathematics ... why ? because, even if a student sees this at high school age, it will take him/her 5-10 years to fully understand the theory behind it, since it involves many disciplines of science (listed above) to fully describe the theory. But, who doesn't understand two flashing lights ??? I remember a chemistry experiment of pouring an Iodine solution into Pb, and get PbI, which turned yellow from clear. I never forgot it ! It has been 30 years !
I don't know if I would focus on FUN, or INTRIGUING ... FUN feeds the hungry brain, INTRIGUING makes it hungry ... That's my take on this ...
Tolga, I will add the word 'intriguing' to my list. Good word. Good description of its role.
I shouldn't consider this WRITTEN ON STONE. IT depends on the person, as was mentioned before ... But, to me, INTRIGUING would work, a lot more than fun !
Again, another old thread - but this is really useful publication i this area:
https://www.ogdentrust.com/assets/general/student-involvement-he-stem-good-practice.pdf
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